1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for processing carcasses of livestock, comprising: at least two dressing tools for performing a dressing process on livestock carcasses, and a robot arm carrying the dressing tool. The invention also relates to a method for processing livestock carcasses using such a device. Livestock carcasses are understood in this context to mean more particularly carcasses of cattle, pigs and sheep. The term carcass should further be interpreted broadly such as to also include carcass parts, such as for instance half-carcasses which may or may not be fully separated from each other.
2. Description of Related Art
Livestock carcasses are usually processed in slaughter lines in which the carcasses (or carcass parts) for processing are carried past a plurality of processing stations. The processing stations can be manned by personnel performing determined processes, although there is a trend toward mechanizing or automating dressing operations as far as possible. Use can be made here in a slaughter line of one or more robot arms with which specific dressing processes are performed automatically. Applying a robot arm to process livestock carcasses has the advantage that further automation of the dressing process is thus made possible while making use of one or more standardized robot arms. Drawbacks of applying one or more robot arms for processing livestock carcasses is that robot arms can be costly in use and that the capacity thereof is relatively limited.
The present invention has for its object to apply a robot arm in order to enable more efficient processing of livestock carcasses and also to further increase the quality of dressing processes performed using a robot arm.